SUPERTRAVEL

This past Thursday 17JUN I was supposed to fly Delta Connection (DL4284) from INL to MSP connecting to MCO. The flight was running 1.5 hours late so I missed the connection at MSP which was the last flight of the day to MCO. I had to stay at the MSP airport hotel (nice place btw) but was denied accommodation by Delta.
The woman at Delta reservations blamed it on a weather delay at CWA earlier that day. The woman at the Delta Skyclub just that since it was not a crew or mechanical issue, they couldn't pay for the hotel. Earlier, the pilot of the INL-MSP flight stood in front of the seated passengers, apologized for the late flight and blamed it on some "airport issue" they had earlier at at an airport in North Dakota, without providing any specificity.
So if any of your sleuths can look at tail number N506CA and figure out where things may have went awry, I'd be interesting in knowing. I suspect it really was weather but 3 different stories made it kind of intriguing. Thanks!

flyerCO

Simply goto flightaware.com and you can see where flight was delayed. It was delayed out of MSP to Williston and thus delayed out of Williston back to MSP. (3hrs each time delay)

As to why, no clue. Aircraft arrived in MSP earlier that morning, so late inbound plane wasnt issue. There was some (not bad though) weather at MSP it appears when finally departed, not sure where/how bad it was at schedule departure.

Could be crew was late due to weather also.

FlyerWx

Weather in MSP looked perfectly fine at 10:15 (scheduled departure) for the flight to XWA. Mid 80s, WSW winds at 8 kt, no low clouds, 10 miles of visibility... Equally good weather in XWA (just a bit breezier) and en route.

It could be crew + weather though

Edit: XWA had a fire truck issue. It broke down and per FAA regulations, they couldn't let flights land. The backup truck was delivered in the afternoon on the 17th, allowing flights to resume.
https://www.facebook.com/flywillistonXWA/

flyerCO

I found out reason. https://www.kfyrtv.com/2021/06/19/mi...ional-airport/

The Airport fire and rescue truck broke down. Airport can't operate commercial services without one.

FlyerWx

I think we both found the reason at the same time

Amazing to see the chain of events that leads from a broken fire truck in XWA to SUPERTRAVEL missing their MSP-MCO flight.

SUPERTRAVEL

Oh wow, can't believe you found that information! They say everything is on the internet somewhere and I guess it really is.
I guess if it's the airport's fault, Delta would not be responsible for my hotel bill that night.
THANK YOU for finding out!

LoganFlyer

For future refence, you can plug in a registration number directly into http://www.flightaware.com to find out where your plane was earlier:

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N506CA

It won't tell you why an earlier flight was delayed, but it's still a start to figuring out what happened.

cmd320

I also like to cross-reference with flightradar24 because sometimes the data on Flightaware isn't completely accurate, particularly when delays are involved.

seawolf

Flightradar history

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n506ca

HDQDD

I've got to add that to my interesting delay reasons!

My most random delay was from ATL-FNT when the airport police officer got stabbed in the terminal and they closed the airport for a few hours. Creepy.

flyerCO

Yeah it especially likes saying a flight was "on time" simply because the arrival/departure time had been updated before departure.

SUPERTRAVEL

I do use Flightaware but thought one had to have a "paid" plan in order to review Tail Number information.
Am less familiar with FlightRadar24.

All great information, everyone. Thanks!

flyerCO

You need a paid plan to see the tail number that a flight flew as. However if you know the tail number you can search using that.

Also you can simply click "track inbound plane" and while it won't tell you the tail number, it goes backward to flight before that one on it. Basically I found it dumb when FA started charging to see tail number. Many work arounds.

Zorak

flightstats.com is another good one -- it includes a detailed event log that shows things like changes to assigned gates, tail swaps, etc. It's sometimes a bit tricky to navigate if the same flight number is operating both AAA-BBB and BBB-AAA or if you are trying to find info for a different date, you have to find the tab/link that lets you say which flight or direction you want.

MSPeconomist

The story about lending a firetruck is nice.